Coming up some of WWE’s plans for this year’s draft have been revealed, a former WWE star
says the company lied to his face during his run and much more so please do consider subscribing
to this channel for all your daily wrestling news because it really helps us out.
A criticism levelled at WWE on the reg this year has been that a lot of the product is
stale with Raw seemingly stuck in an endless Groundhog Day style loop and not one person
with the gumption of Bill Murray to even realise. Instead WWE’s reaction to the pandemic has
been like Punxatawny Phil seeing a shadow and condemning us all to six more weeks of
Natalya and Tamina vs Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke.
It’s got so bad that even Vince McMahon is aware of it. Not doing anything about it,
but aware. So news of a WWE Draft looming on the horizon
should be enough to lift of all of our spirits, because an injection of new blood into the
stagnant rosters should spice things up nicely. Well Andrew Zarian says he has insight into
what WWE intend to do with this year’s roster refresh, he reported that the Draft will take
place on Monday 30th August’s Raw and September 3rd’s Smackdown.
Adding on Twitter: “I’m seeing a few reports that WWE doesn't
have set plans for after the draft. I can tell you that report isn't totally accurate.
WWE has big plans for some who will be switching brands following SummerSlam.”
“With that said... I have heard the goal is to give this year's draft a bigger feel
than the previous for all the reasons you imagine. You have a unique opportunity to
hit the reset button on a lot of talent.” Could the person to finally topple Roman Reigns
be amongst those moving from Raw to Smackdown? Will the much rumoured call ups from NXT happen?
Will we get the New Day back together finally? That’s what WrestleVotes said on Twitter
yesterday. Which I like the sound of a lot, especially
as post-Money in the Bank there is going to be a lot of good story reason for E to go
after Lashley if he is still the WWE Champion as he has already brutalised Xavier Woods
inside Hell in a Cell on this Monday’s Raw and will likely have destroyed Kofi Kingston
at MITB to boot. Have WWE actually done a clever here and set
something up over a course of months? Who would you like to see make the jump to
a new brand during the Draft this year? Let me know in the comments because I’ll be
replying. One name it will be interesting to see what
happens to come the Draft is Jeff Hardy, who has been absent from screens for much of this
year, or as good as absent having matches on Main Event.
With the Charismatic Enigma’s absence a mystery many speculated that his contract
may be coming up and that Jeff could be looking to jump ship.
Including his brother Matt who spoke about it on a recent Twitch stream teasing Jeff
to AEW confirmed: “The gimmick I would like to end my career
on, I would like to finish my career teaming with my brother as the Hardy Boyz. Real life
Matt and real life Jeff, doing our thing. I feel like that’s a beautiful way to tie
up a career.” “I would love to have Jeff come to AEW so we could team together. There
are a lot of great teams there. A proper Hardys vs. Young Bucks feud would be amazing.”
But Matt might be waiting a while on that one. Fightful Select are reporting new deets
about Jeff’s contract saying that it has either been “restructured, re-signed or
extended” since he signed his new deal in 2020.
Which means it could reportedly last until the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023 with
the potential for added injury time if Hardy ends up taking time off because of an injury.
But WWE is not the only company getting some much needed freshness after their biggest
show of the year, because Impact has their biggest show of the year on the horizon with
Slammiversary set to take place on Saturday July 17th and the rumour is that they might
be hoovering up some of WWE’s released talent. Fightful Select are reporting that at least
two surprises are currently planned for the show - and while this doesn’t guarantee
the WWE releases will be filling those slots, last year saw The Good Brothers, Heath Slater
and others make their debuts at the show. The most recent round of releases will still
be under their 90 day non-compete clauses when Slammiversary airs, but we could see
some of other names given the old heave ho by Vince and co come over.
That’s Mickie James who has already been teased on Impact TV, Chelsea Green a former
Impact star, Billie Kay, Peyton Royce, Bo Dallasm, Kalisto, Tucker, Wesley Blake and
Mojo Rawley. For my money Mickie and Chelsea are the most
likely, with the Iconics seeming like an absolute no brainer now that the Knockouts Tag Team
titles are in play. Especially as the Fightful’s report also
suggests that Impact is looking to enact a “reinvigoration” of the Knockouts Division
in July and fresh competitors would certainly help with that goal.
And another clue could be that Mickie James has champion women’s wrestling in WWE and
already is producing an all women’s pay-per-view with the NWA, so she would be someone good
to have on board for a full revamp. Another question mark hanging over Slammiversary
is what will go down between Kenny Omega and Sami Callihan at the show.
Sami had been fired by Don Callis until recently when Tommy Dreamer returned as an advocate
for Impact management, reinstating Callihan and firing Callis.
An onscreen move that mirrored his leaving his role backstage, seemingly to concentrate
on his current partnership with Kenny on AEW/Impact and wherever else the pair end up.
With Callis out of the picture, many are speculating that Omega’s reign as Impact Champion could
be drawing to a close, DRAW-ing, Sami Callihan gettit.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio Dave Meltzer said that though specifics aren’t
externally known about when, where and to whom Kenny will drop the belt, the plan has
been discussed by both companies from off and planned out well ahead of time.
He said: “They’re all collaborating, especially
with Omega. With Sammy Guevara obviously it wasn’t as collaborated because it wasn’t
in as high profile a picture. But before Omega ever won the title, they had their battle
plan all mapped out on what it’s gonna be, who’s gonna be on what show, and when it’s
gonna be, and when IMPACT can get their title back. That was all part of the deal way ahead
of time.” Meltzer is also referring to the Sammy Guevara
situation from a few months back where he wasn’t a fan of the plans Impact had from
him at the tapings and ended up not doing them.
But with Kenny as the Champ that’s not exactly an option, so it’s understandable that a
plan would be in place for Kenny’s title reign and who might be his successor. Ya hear
that WWE? A plan? Who are these cowboys? One of the names we spoke of a little earlier
when we speculated who could be joining Impact at Slammiversary was the former Tucker Knight,
aka Levi Cooper. In an exclusive interview with the team over
at WrestleTalk.com don’t know who they are but I think we should all check that website
out for up to the minute wrestling news, live commentary on shows and exclusives, he said
that he was not informed of the split up of his tag team Heavy Machinery until the day
of the show. "I was never told (about the split) really.
The first time I found out that it might happen was at TVs the day that we did the Talking
Smack segment (for the draft), I found out a couple of hours before that.”
He said the company called him in to appear on a show he wasn’t booked for at the last
minute and toll him of the plans very late in the day which he reckons was to keep him
“frazzled” so he “wouldn’t ask a bunch of questions”.
Then as you know Tucker turned on Otis at Hell in a Cell causing him to drop the Money
in the Bank briefcase to The Miz, but the entire Otis with the briefcase run was something
Tucker had no idea of the plans for, saying: “So honestly I didn’t really get any answers
on that either. I think that Otis getting the briefcase was a real last minute decision,
I believe, I don’t know that either. The truth of the matter is, no I don’t really
have any set answers, I didn’t get any, I feel like I was definitely lied to straight
to my face on multiple occasions.” For more from that interview including a scrapped
plan for Tucker in Raw Underground head over to WrestleTalk.com to read the full article.
An administrative hiccup on WWE.com caused a bit of a storm on Twitter and Reddit yesterday
as people speculated that Eva Marie had been fired after making her return to screens.
All because she wasn’t showing up on the current roster page and instead was nestled
in amongst the alumni. Marie waded in tweeting:
“FAKE NEWS! Tweets circulating that my Status on the WWE Roster is Alumni. FALSE! A simple
fact check reveals the truth. Don't let the main stream fake wrestling news media try
to derail the #EVALution . We are in this together, they can't stop us!"
But basically this was all happening as the website was fixed, Comicbook.com even fired
up the Wayback machine to double check the timings.
The error has now been fixed. Please return to your homes, excitement over.
If you’re still watching at this point, right at the end of the video, you’re the
best of the best of the best of the best of WrestleTalk viewers. So I’ve got a huge
favour to ask of you all. If you use Google Chrome as your browser,
it’d mean the world to us all here if you add WrestleTalk.com to your Google Discover
feed. Once you have, send us a screenshot to @wrestleTalk_TV with the hashtag discover
wrestletalk. You'll then be entered into a giveaway to win a video call with Oli and
Luke! Loads of you have already entered. Thank you
to David Costanza, Tim Stephenson, Wes White and more!
Here’s how to do it: On your phone, you can customize those suggested
articles you see any time you open a new tab on Google Chrome or on the Google app. In
Chrome when you open a new tab, click the little gear icon next to Discover and go to
Manage Interests. From there, you can find WrestleTalk as a suggested option and click
the follow button - and voila, you’ll be suggested the latest wrestletalk.com articles.
On the Google app, you need to go to your Settings and Your Interests, and do the same
thing - find WrestleTalk and hit the follow button. An easy way to get the latest wrestling
news right to your phone! Please go to WrestleTalk.com right now and
check out all the latest wrestling news.